Powderfinger

Powderfinger has emerged as one of Australia's most popular radio-friendly rock bands, part of a generation of significant Australian rock to come out of Brisbane in the wake of the Bjelke-Peterson "deep north" era when a lot of youth culture was suppressed. It didn't happen straight away, but when it did, it produced music the rest of Australia embraced.

Powderfinger grew out of a three-piece band, taking their name from a Neil Young song in 1990 with the addition of two members, including singer/guitarist Bernard Fanning. They cut their musical teeth performing cover versions of classics by Neil Young, The Rolling Stones, The Doors, Led Zeppelin, Steppenwolf and Rodriguez. In the beginning, the group promoted their own gigs, posted their own flyers, and then put their earnings into 1,500 copies of a self-titled EP. The second EP 'Transfusion' was highlighted by 'Reap What You Sow', a song featuring harmonies and showing off Fanning's soulful voice - a taste of things to come.

The band was signed to Polydor Records and their major label debut album 'Parables for Wooden Ears' followed in August 1994. Produced by Tony Cohen (Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, The Cruel Sea) this album emphasised the band's heavier side. A Top Ten seller in their home state, the album launched Powderfinger nationally, thanks also to a bout of constant touring.

After a creative hibernation and two CD EP's, recording started for the second album, the breakthrough 'Double Allergic', which revealed a significant shift towards accessible rock songs rooted in melodic grooves. Powderfinger's reason to be is to create songs strong enough for the band and audience to play and hear months or years down the line. The singles 'Pick You Up' and 'DAF' (which stands for the first three chords of the song) picked up strong airplay support. The album went straight to the top ten in September 1996, sold double platinum, spent half a year in the Top 30 and earned the group a string of ARIA nominations including album of the year.

It meant that Powderfinger didn't get around to recording the third album until two years later when they walked into the studio with 30-40 songs and came out five weeks later with 'Internationalist'. This album entered the charts at Number One, and was still charting a year later when, this time Powderfinger won its ARIA awards nominations. Another two years on, September 2000's 'Odyssey No.5' gave them their second No.1 album in the row, and at the start of the New Millennium Powderfinger were arguably Australia's "top" band. Sales in excess of 400,000 confirmed their place on top.

A flurry of Powderfinger releases, 'These Days' (live) and 'Fingerprint' (Best of) preceded the November 2005 release of Bernard Fanning's country rock solo album 'Tea and Sympathy', a national No.1 album selling four times platinum.

Powderfinger had decided to take a break and didn't reassemble until February 2006 when they reassembled to write the songs for a new band album, this time taking a different approach to the songwriting by initially writing songs in groups of two or three rather than the entire band to avoid some band members dominating the process. The other objective was to get as far away from the 'Tea And Symphony' songs as possible.

The resulting songs were taken to Los Angeles, where they were produced by Rob Schnapf, known for his work with Beck's early albums. The title of the album 'Dream Days At The Hotel Existence' was inspired by the Paul Aster book 'Brooklyn Follies' Bernard Fanning was reading during the sessions. In May 2007, on the threshold of the album's release controversy surrounded one of the songs, 'Black Tears' over its apparent reference to an aboriginal custody in death on Palm Island in Queensland in December 2006. A trial relating to that incident was due and it was suggested the song might prejudice proceedings. Powderfinger made last-minute changes to the lyric to avoid legal action holding up the album's release.

In August 2007 Powerfinger embarked on a nationwide tour with Silverchair titled the Across the Great Divide tour, starting in Silverchair's hometown Newcastle and Powderfinger's Brisbane a couple of days later. The tour embraced 34 concerts in 26 towns lasted over two months with an estimated 220,000 people in attendance and aimed to promote the efforts of Reconciliation Australia, a foundation helping to improve the welfare of the indigenous Australians. A DVD featuring the Melbourne concert and a 90 minute documentary was released in December.